Used Tom tom go camper around Spain (first time) and France and it was brilliant. The MyDrive is very useful too.
Choosing Between TomTom and Garmin GPS
- Thread starter WallaceandGromit
- Start date
Boswell Bear
Free Member
- Oct 25, 2024
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- Funster No
- 107,395
- MH
- Westfalia Amundsen
I’ve always found TomTom Go on my phone to have great routing but more importantly it’s traffic avoidance is second to none.
Clive Mott
Funster
Have a shelf full of Tom Toms at home and all have the same problem in the camper on the dash, with that massive window it lets in so much light that you cannot read the tom tom screen. However we are also motorcyclists and one of the expensive options for a BMW bike is the BMW sat nav, which is Garmin. Lots of memory and maps for life and built like a brick outhouse. But super bright for use outdoors. I sold the bike but kept the sat nav. For the price of another Tom Tom I bought the car adapter and this is what we now have in the camper. Mapping? Havent noticed any difference but I can see it and if I turn up the volume hear it as well. Currently mulling over fitting a double DIN radio/satnav/Camera screen/infotainment job in the dash, Android based but only really so I can answer phone calls using the buttons on the steering wheel. Thought the tick list option when new was too expensive when we ordered the van in 2017 but our Hyundai car has spoilt me. However I never have the radio on or music playing while driving as I find it distracting, and thats not good.
Googgle maps is good, but doesn't take into account, length, width and height; it thinks you are a car.
- Dec 19, 2022
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- Lunar Fivestar
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- Motorhoming since 2011 - now returning after a long break!
Have a look at CMNAV. Good value, does all you need (including vehicle dimensions settings) and a decent sized screen.
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"IE Their product designed for a motorbike is not suitable for a motorhome.". Why do you say that? I use my Rider 550 in the MH and it works fine - I plot my routes beforehand (with some reference to google earth and other mapping software) by adding one or 2 way marks and off I go. The satnav works how you set it up to work. TomTom's claim of having a Campervan friendly satnav is pretty dubious - I have seen a lot of posters stating that their campervan version still sends them down unsuitably narrow roads when wider better options are available. TomTom can't actually know road widths, it looks at whether or not it is a classified / useable road and considers it suitable.Tom Tom and Garmin are the two companies that provide the underlying map data to most other companies.
Both are very good.
(The other two big ones are Google and Apple, both of which have shear number of users and live traffic as advantages, but are nowhere near as good when it comes to driving restrictions, speeds, tolls, heights, actual drivable roads, turn restrictions, one ways, Emission zones etc etc)
What really matters is the quality of the software driving whatever base map provider you choose.
On the basis that Tom Tom and Garmin are not only providers of the map data, but also the driver software and the hardware I would stick with just their products (which are sometimes badged by others)
If you then only select the Garmin and TomTom products designed for the type of vehicle you have
IE Their product designed for a motorbike is not suitable for a motorhome.
Likewise Car or HGV SatNav's are also not suitable for a motorhome.
Therefore you will find the number of Garmin and TomTom products designed for what you want will fit on one hand.
Personally, having looked at all the options (and the prices) I went for the
AVTEX Tourer 3 Plus.
Which if you are a member of the C&MHC you can get about £30 off the RRP.
(Also this gives you the location of all the C&MHC Campsites, which is a surprisingly useful feature we found.)
This is a Garmin product, also sold by Gamin as the CamperCam 795 and RV 795
(Same product, just does not have the added C&MHC sites)
I suspect Garmin sell the product in other countries with different badge names and no doubt extra features that people from that country want.
(The German version may show nearest nude beaches, the French version does resturants, and the Spanish version shows parking places for siestas ....)
So hunt around, the price may vary.
I've also got lifetime updates - something you don't now get with the 'camper' version.
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look out for Tomtom deals as I got mine, 7in exclusive, directly for £250 as it was on 40% - the deal finished a couple of days ago so it might pop back on unless you need to use it quite soon. Very good piece of kit - you can add the campsite specific stuff on line for no additional charge.
Personally I gave up both TomTom & Garmin dedicated machines years ago. The interfaces were always slow and clunky, the screens similar. I use an Ipad mini with whichever software app you fancy. The screen is just so much better and faster. I use a dedicated tablet mount and a sun visor off Amazon.
Personally I use Copilot for caravans for 2 very specific reasons. Firstly you can load different POI lists into Copilot and secondly if you use Campercontact app you can send campsite positions direct to various nav apps, as destinations, such as Copilot and Sygic and I assume Tomtom etc as well
Personally I use Copilot for caravans for 2 very specific reasons. Firstly you can load different POI lists into Copilot and secondly if you use Campercontact app you can send campsite positions direct to various nav apps, as destinations, such as Copilot and Sygic and I assume Tomtom etc as well
stuartholmes
LIFE MEMBER
I used w3w to direct the ambulance to me when I was having a heart attack.
Couldn't have managed anything else and can't say what would have happened without it.
The ambulance controller / despatcher started asking me if I could download it but I'd been ahead of her, always had & always will have it two clicks away.
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Yes, but only a someone with local knowledge would know the other routes are undrivable in a motorhome.
stuartholmes
LIFE MEMBER
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Yes, that’s an entirely different context, my response was in relation to a poster asking why Sat Navs didn’t use it.
I wouldn’t be using a sat nav to inform anyone of my location.
Ian
Absolutely! I was using your helpful local knowledge example to “test” my satnav. Thanks!
TomTom (and Garmin) are slowly getting to grips with narrow roads.
I think both companies have several years to go to build up the data.
There are those road you cant go down at all, not because of a width restriction, but because of corners or houses that get in the way (more likely places like Italy).
There are those roads, whilst narrow, are navigable by a motorhome with care, such as Scottish single track.
Where the roads a relatively straight but more to the point mostly have good sight lines and lots of gaps between the walls and frequent passing places.
There are those roads, such as West Country single track, where unlike the Scottish cousin, the sight lines are measured in single figure meters, you have high stone hedges on either side and the road may not actually be much wider than your wing mirrors.
Two motorhomes or caravans meeting on such a road can (and frequently do) block the road for hours.
Then there are those roads in the Alpine region's (and also the Lake District) where you have steep hills, tight bends, and single track
Some of these roads have campsites on them, and people don't follow the camp sites arrival instructions.
Somehow TomTom and Garmin have go to understand the difference between a campervan, a PC, a sub 7m motorhome, a 7-8.5m motorhome possibly with a tag axle, a 8.5m+ motorhome, (All of which could be towing a trailer), then also between a car towing a small caravan and a car towing a large caravan, a delivery van, a small coach, a big coach and a HGV.
The UK maybe a good place to start, as it may offer more miles than any other western european country of every type of road.
However unlike Italy, the UK does not have many villages only suitable for a Fiat 500 or a donkey.
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stuartholmes
LIFE MEMBER
I don't know how to send my location in a satnav, there could be a way but I just looked on google maps & couldn't see it.Yes, that’s an entirely different context, my response was in relation to a poster asking why Sat Navs didn’t use it.
I wouldn’t be using a sat nav to inform anyone of my location.
Ian
The W3W website has a list of car manufacturers inc Jag & Merc who have W3W with voice access in their integrated satnavs.
- Mar 5, 2011
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Hi
If you are running Tomtom Apps or TT Devices then I suggest you could try the Mapcode App on your phone. Mapcodes were started in about 2000 by the Tomtom personal so that you can identify any spot about the size of a Carpark space in the world with a Mapcode. When you open the App if you then Tap Hybrid on the Map you get a Map similar to Google Earth. When you move the map around until the Cursor is directly over the precise spot you want you are given an Address, Long and Lat and a Mapcode for the position. So if you then type the Mapcode in Search on your App or device then it will route you there. If you are using a Tomtom Navigation App you can cut and Paste from the Mapcode App. So for example if you want to go to East Midlands Airports viewing point then use the Mapcode GBR 7HJ.H8X. You may well find if you are in the UK that you may not have to input the GBR. I find it useful sometimes to use Mapcodes because Postcodes cover such large areas whereas a Mapcode is very precise.
If you are running Tomtom Apps or TT Devices then I suggest you could try the Mapcode App on your phone. Mapcodes were started in about 2000 by the Tomtom personal so that you can identify any spot about the size of a Carpark space in the world with a Mapcode. When you open the App if you then Tap Hybrid on the Map you get a Map similar to Google Earth. When you move the map around until the Cursor is directly over the precise spot you want you are given an Address, Long and Lat and a Mapcode for the position. So if you then type the Mapcode in Search on your App or device then it will route you there. If you are using a Tomtom Navigation App you can cut and Paste from the Mapcode App. So for example if you want to go to East Midlands Airports viewing point then use the Mapcode GBR 7HJ.H8X. You may well find if you are in the UK that you may not have to input the GBR. I find it useful sometimes to use Mapcodes because Postcodes cover such large areas whereas a Mapcode is very precise.
stuartholmes
LIFE MEMBER
- Mar 15, 2024
- 4
- 1
- Funster No
- 101,791
- MH
- Swift Escape 604
Garmin for me, I have had 2 garmins and 1 Tom Tom, I now have Garmin Avtex Tourer, with Moho dimensions programmed in. I always choose my route on maps first and put in a lunch stop, so we go the way we want to go. Lifetime map updates anytime you are connected to wifi. Huge storage with mini SD. Had it 3 years, 38,000 miles, 3 trips to Europe, no issues.
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If anyone wants to create POI files for their satnav, I use this free utility.
https://poieditor.com/
https://poieditor.com/
I bought a TomTom Camper Max simply because I have have been using TomTom on the bikes for years and am used to the mapping and interface. I had a Garmin (and still have it in my museum drawer) way back and went to TomTom with free map updates when Garmin said they had updated the platform and my unit was no longer supported and there would be no more (paid) map updates, rendering it useless....
'Lifetime' updates seems to be about 7 years
I have three old GPS units, all still work, but are increasinging out of date.
This is the Garmin Quest photographed in 2008. If I had followed it religiously we would have been in a lake.... The road shown ahead of the arrow didn't exist.
I had to cobble together a few different bits of kit to get the voice instructions in my helmet. A Cardo bluetooth receiver and headset, a Cardo bluetooth sender meant for mobile phones and it all worked. Until they decided to kill it off for new technology. No part ex offer in a new one.... No compo!
The good thing about the Camper Max is the wifi updates and the bluetooth tethering even in the EU works with a Tesco SIM card.
Gellyneck
LIFE MEMBER
My Garmin Nuvi 2460LT bought in April 2011 still updates it's maps (well probably it did until I just said that!).
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Gellyneck
LIFE MEMBER
We do similar using BaseCamp on laptop / desktop and then load to sat nav.
Gellyneck
LIFE MEMBER
I've used an old offline version of extrapoiloader for years to bulk upload custom poi's to our Garmin sat navs.
A screenshot of our BaseCamp poi's loaded to them.
stuartholmes
LIFE MEMBER
These are among the reasons I'm sticking with google & road signs...
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